Greetings.

Yesterday my production machine got Windows 11 and BIOS updates. Everything went smoothly. However, today when I was back to work none of my iLok protected plugins could load: each and every was asking for activation.

When I launched the iLok manager I realized that I had a duplicate copy of my machine with the exact same name and the new location ID. All my licenses are still in the "old" location (which is physically the same machine) and there's no way for me to access them (deactivate or move to the "new" location). I don't have a dongle, all my activations are machine-based.

My question is: what can I do to regain access to my licenses and run the plugins again? If I use the "Report as Unusable" option in the iLok manager, will my old activation keys I got when I purchased the software be available or will I have to contact every manufacturer and ask for a new one? Any ideas? Any help?

Thanks in advance for every hint.

 

Last edited: Dec 13, 2023

I love iLok but this sucks. Sounds like you are going to need support for sure. Thanks for sharing. I will keep this in mind and hope it gets worked out for you ASAP.

 

That's terrible. I guess the BIOS update futzed your machine-id. I'd report the old duplicate as inaccessible and move as many licenses to the cloud as possible. There's a thread on vi-control on the same problem (dup'ed machine), the person got their licenses back in less than 2 weeks of reporting the machine as inaccessible.

 

You can deactivate all licences and activate again.
Had same problem when changed my motherboard.

 

It's "all of a sudden," not "out of a sudden."

 

I'd bet to completely uninstall+reinstall iLok driver/manager

 

First of all: thank you so much for taking your time and sharing your thoughts. It means the world to me.

I agree with @xorome that the culprit must have been the BIOS update. The thing is that I've been using Dell laptops for ages and updated BIOS countless times, and I never experienced a single issue. Oh well...

I managed to contact Pace support and as far as I can tell the only way to fix the mess is 1) use the 2nd activation of each piece of software, 2) report the "old" machine as unusable and get rid of it on the Pace's side. Besides, as soon as I have spare 50 bucks, I'm going to get the physical iLok dongle so I don't have to rely on my PC's internals.

@ArticStorm -- I should have bought the dongle long time ago. Anyway, maybe sharing the story will be educational for someone else.

@marveljam -- I do hope that physical dongle can prevent us from getting into this sort of mess because it operates independently to a computer.

@adva77 -- Unfortunately, in my case this doesn't work... See the second screenshot above and read the message I got when I tried to go this way.

@tzzsmk -- I tried it, but it didn't do the trick.

(@m.sarti -- <facepalm>yes, of course, my bad</facepalm>)

Once again, thanks everyone.